Ben Shapiro has earned some fierce pushback over his recent remarks at the Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA’s AmFest. But in criticizing those who indulge conspiracies, lies, and authoritarian apologetics, Shapiro simply told some hard truths.
Shapiro attacked Tucker Carlson for platforming and failing to challenge neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes. He rebuked Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories, took on Steve Bannon, calling him a PR flack of Jeffrey Epstein, and other conservatives, such as Megyn Kelly, for failing to clearly denounce those who flirt with warped narratives.
Speaking at AmFest, Vice President JD Vance appeared to rebuke Shapiro when he stated that conservatives had “far more important work to do than canceling each other.” But the angry reaction to Shapiro’s rhetoric shows only that principles are too often giving way to opportunism in today’s conservative movement and the Republican Party.
What, exactly, do Carlson’s sympathy for Vladimir Putin, his praise for authoritarians, and his platforming of antisemites have to do with conservatism or American leadership? How does Owens’s absurd conspiracy-mongering advance limited government or individual liberty?
These are political opportunists who believe that spreading bigotry, deception, and resentment offers them a path to success. What they fail to recognize is that these tactics betray the very principles – truth, liberty, individual dignity- that define America. Indeed, the populist right has now come to resemble the very politics it defined itself against, namely the politics of Wokism. Their reality must conform to the narrative, and the narrative relies on echo chambers, not on truth.
One overriding challenge is that there are no longer widely respected gatekeepers who are viewed with shared respect by conservatives and who can clearly state what constitutes credible points in conservative debate. Instead, the loudest and most outrageous voices often dominate, regardless of their relationship to truth or to principle.
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But Ben Shapiro is right, we have a responsibility to draw clear lines in the sand. Carlson and Owens, who present themselves as defenders of America, harm not only the conservative movement but America itself.
After all, America, all its other great tenets notwithstanding, is about moral clarity.
